NZ Secondary School Rogaine Champs

Published

The NZ Secondary School Rogaine Championships held on the Port Hills on Saturday 28 May were almost derailed by a bomb scare.

The championships, which began and finished at Victoria Park, used the NavLight electronic punching system by which teams record they have visited a checkpoint. The system entails a torch-like punch that is inserted into a device that competitors wear on their wrists. (Referhttp://nzssrogaine2016.weebly.com/navlight.html for more detail.)

All but one of the checkpoints were located beyond urban areas in the vicinity of Victoria Park. One, however, was in small suburban park. The electronic punches were placed in the field on the Thursday preceding the event, but because they intermittently flash as they recharge a neighbour of the park became alarmed by the flashing and called the police to check out if it was a ‘bomb’. The punch was removed by the police on Friday evening and therefore could have jeopardised the fairness of the NZ championship event on the Saturday. Fortunately teams that visited the checkpoint were resourceful enough to realise their map navigation was correct and the checkpoint was missing.

Senior student teams competed over four hours while the junior event was of three hours duration. The winning senior boys team of Callum and Flynn Hill from Whangarei Boys High School notched up sterling effort in almost clearing the course. They scored 2130 points out of a maximum of 2160, missing just one thirty-point control of the total of 50 checkpoints.

Organised by Peninsula and Plains Orienteers on behalf of Orienteering New Zealand and sanctioned by the NZ Secondary School Sports Council, the schools rogaine championships were the third such and the first time they have been held in the South Island.

Titles were evenly spread across north and south. Besides Whangarei Boys High School in the senior bots, other winners were: